Georges Tai Benson

Georges Tai Benson was an Ivorian television presenter, producer and cultural broker who helped define the golden age of Radiodiffusion Television Ivoirienne (RTI). Born on 25 January 1946 in Treichville, Abidjan, and trained in France before returning to the national broadcaster in December 1965, he spent decades putting music, dance and public debate on Ivorian screens. He died on 25 September 2026 at the Institut de cardiologie d'Abidjan, aged 80.

The son of a jeweller father and a housewife mother, Benson grew up in a large blended family and began primary school in Grand-Lahou from 1952 to 1958 before secondary studies in Abidjan. Expelled for indiscipline in the fifth form, he turned to dramatic arts on the Plateau and entered the Institut National des Arts. He then took an eighteen-month theoretical course at the Office de cooperation radiophonique in Paris, followed by practical training in France, and flew home on 11 December 1965. Five days later he went on air at RTI with the programme Rythme et tradition, beginning a career that would make him one of the most familiar faces in Ivorian living rooms.

Through the 1970s and 1980s Benson built a reputation as more than a studio host. He scouted and staged talent, argued for serious cultural journalism, and used the single national channel as a trampoline for musicians and dancers who had nowhere else to be seen. In 1979 he travelled to Miami to meet Bob Marley and negotiate concerts planned for Abidjan; the shows were cancelled when the parties could not agree a contract, but the trip cemented his image as a journalist willing to cross diplomatic and commercial lines for music. A few years later he produced Alpha Blondy's breakthrough album Jah Glory (1982-1983), including the controversial hit Brigadier Sabari, after Blondy's appearance on Roger Fulgence Kassy's Première chance. He was also associated with the rise of singers such as Chantal Taiba.

In 1985 he created Varietoscope, the annual choreographic showcase on RTI's first channel that became one of the longest-running entertainment formats in the Ivorian audiovisual landscape. First staged at Treich Kankan in Treichville with Abidjan dance groups, the show was later popularised with collaborators including Barthelemy Inabo and Serge Fatoh Elleigand and remained a national rite of passage for young performers. Benson also served as charge de mission to the President of the Republic of Cote d'Ivoire, and the RTI Music Awards later named a top trophy in his honour. His decorations included Chevalier of the National Order of Cote d'Ivoire, Officier du merite sportif, Chevalier du merite agricole, and the French Medaille d'or de la jeunesse et des sports.

Colleagues remembered a man who asked for recognition while he was still working. Fraternite Matin recalled his maxim that he wanted "hommages a titre costume et non a titre posthume." He marked fifty years in television around 2015 and continued to speak to journalism students about passion and general culture. After a period of illness he died on Friday 25 September 2026; the Agence Ivoirienne de Presse and family sources confirmed the death that evening. Tributes from long-time collaborators such as Barthelemy Inabo underlined how completely an earlier generation of RTI had depended on his energy and taste.

Benson's legacy sits at the junction of public broadcasting, popular music and national memory. Varietoscope and the artists he championed outlived any single programme slot, and the RTI Music Awards trophy that carries his name keeps his credit on air. For many Ivorians he remains the face of an era when one channel could invent stars and set the cultural conversation.